Skretting's innovative Prime & Express diets that have been launched globally this year use the full salmon growth potential and provide producers with the means to optimize its farming, ensures the multinational aqua-feed company.

The company notes that during the last three decades, the Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC) has pioneered research into the functionality of the different nutrients that make up fish and shrimp feed. Thanks to this, it has been able to discover that there is a series of stimuli that affect the consumption of feed, such as appetite and palatability, which has made it possible to find ways to positively influence these factors in salmon. This has enabled fish to increase their feed consumption, and also to increase efficiency in the nutrient absorption process.

"This work has provided the foundation for Prime & Express, our two new Skretting nutritional solutions for the fattening stage that are explicitly designed to stimulate and increase appetite and food intake in salmon," comments Sissel Susort, Global Product Group Manager for Skretting.

"They work in tandem to facilitate the best possible growth of the fish at two crucial growth stages, with Prime optimising consumption at the first seawater growth phase of the production cycle – up to 1 kilogram; Express takes over in the final grow-out phase – taking the salmon right through to harvest," she explains.

For his part, Christian De Santis, a researcher at Skretting ARC, points out that good growth in the first seawater stage should support the recruitment of new muscle fibers and healthy bone deposition.

"In the later seawater phase that leads to harvest, growth occurs primarily by enlargement of the existing muscle fibres and by deposition of fat. Growth at this final stage is only as good as the foundation that we lay in the first phase. With Prime and Express, we are supporting fast growth while giving the salmon everything that they need to support the right type of growth", details the researcher.

De Santis also says the validation tests performed with Express "showed that it significantly reduces fat accumulation in intestinal cells, implying much more effective absorption."

According to Skretting, Prime and Express can allow producers to reduce their production time by up to four weeks. Alternatively, if they wanted to maintain their present productive times, the harvest weight can be increased up to 700 grams.

"Together, Prime and Express are a game-changing solution that will provide our customers with the increased flexibility to do what’s best for their production system without taking any shortcuts or unnecessary risks. Whether they choose to reduce the production time or to provide the market with larger salmon, there are considerable benefits from either action," says Susort.

Prime and Express will be launched gradually in all salmon-producing markets.